Banda Neira, Banda Islands
It's where the bloody colonialism for more than 3 centuries was started, in the name of exotic commodity called "nutmegs".
A very good place to deeply feel and learn about horrible past events.

The Maluku Islands or the Moluccas /məˈlʌkəz/ are an archipelago within Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located east of Sulawesi, west of New Guinea, and north and east of Timor. The islands were also historically known as the "Spice Islands" by the Chinese and Europeans, but this term has also been applied to other islands outside Indonesia.

Most of the islands are mountainous, some with active volcanoes, and enjoy a wet climate. The vegetation of the small and narrow islands, encompassed by the sea, is very luxuriant; including rainforests, sago, rice, and the famous spicesnutmeg, mace and cloves, among others. Though originally Melanesian, many island populations, especially in the Banda Islands, were killed off in the 17th century during the Spice Wars. A second influx of Austronesian immigrants began in the early twentieth century under the Dutch and continues in the Indonesian era.

The Maluku Islands formed a single province since Indonesian independence until 1999, when it was split into two provinces. A new province, North Maluku, incorporates the area between Morotai and Sula, with the arc of islands from Buru and Seram to Wetar remaining within the existing Maluku Province. North Maluku is predominantly Muslim and its capital is Ternate. Maluku province has a larger Christian population and its capital is Ambon.

"Spice Islands" most commonly refers to the Maluku Islands and often also to the small volcanic Banda Islands, once the only source of mace and nutmeg.

Etymology

The name Maluku is thought to have been derived from the Arab trader's term for the region, Jazirat al-Muluk ("the island of the kings")

Administrative divisions

The Maluku Islands were a single province from Indonesian independence until 1999 when they were split into North Maluku and Maluku.
North Maluku province includes Ternate (the site of the provincial capital), Tidore, Bacan, Halmahera (the largest of the Maluku Islands)[3] Morotai, the Obi Islands, and the Sula Islands. The residual Maluku province includes Ambon (the site of the provincial capital) and the other Lease Islands; the much larger islands of Seram and Buru; the smaller islands lying south and east of Seramthe Banda Islands, Gorong Islands, Watubela Islands, Kai Islands and Aru Islands; and in the far south the Babar Islands, Damar Islands, Romang, Kisar, the Leti Islands, Tanimbar Islands, and Wetar.

Demographics

Maluku's population is about 2 million, less than 1% of Indonesia's population.

Over 130 languages were once spoken across the islands; however many have now mixed to form local pidgin dialects of Ternatean and Ambonese, the lingua franca of northern and southern Maluku respectively.

A long history of trade and seafaring has resulted in a high degree of mixed blood ancestry in Malukans. Austronesian peoples added to the native Melanesian population around 2000 BCE. Melanesian features are strongest in the islands of Kei and Aru and amongst the interior people of Seram and Buru islands. Later added to this Austronesian-Melanesian mix were Indian, Arab, Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch genes. More recent arrivals include Bugis trader settlers from Sulawesi and Javanese transmigrants.